Frankenstein in Today’s World

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, “Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus” (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, [1931]), The Morgan Library & Museum (image courtesy Universal Studios Licensing LLC, © 1931 Univeral Pictures Company, Inc., photo by Janny Chiu)

The Morgan Library & Museum will host “Frankenstein and his Monster in Today’s World” on Wednesday, a talk coinciding with the exhibition It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200, up through January 27, 2019.

The event will explore two themes from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as speakers discuss the novel’s relevance to today’s world. The first part of the talk features Charlie Fox, author of This Young Monster, who will discuss the ways Frankenstein’s monster is represented in queer art and “how its descendants find their way into contemporary culture and media,” according to the website.

“Carl Laemmle Presents Frankenstein: the Man who Made a Monster” (1931), lithograph poster, collection of Stephen Fishler, comicconnect.com (image courtesy Universal Studios Licensing LLC, © 1931 Univeral Pictures Company, Inc.)

Following Fox’s talk, Rosalind Williams, Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will discuss the “conundrums posed in the novel.” Williams’s talk will answer the question of how to “exercise responsibility in a world of innovation beset by unintended consequences.”

In addition, It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200 will open at 5:30, after the museum’s closing time for attendees of the event.

Tickets, which can be purchased here, are $15, $10 for members, and free for students with student ID.

When: Wednesday, November 14 , 6:30 pm
Where: The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, Murray Hill, Manhattan